The Roadgeeks of Simtropolis

[nhgriffith 179]

There's one other area where they're doing pretty major construction work in the Fayetteville area.  This one is just north of Fayetteville in the neighboring town of Springdale.

 

 

A few years ago, the Kansas City Royals moved their AA Minor League team to Springdale (the Northwest Arkansas Naturals).  That stadium is in the northwest corner of this image.  In the northeast corner of this image is a bunch of minor league fields and a park and playground and such.  And in the bottom right you see a big avenue.  That avenue is the Don Tyson Parkway.  And just a little bit east of this image, on that road, is where you'll find the Tyson Headquarters (or one of their main buildings anyway, but I'm pretty sure it's their headquarters).

 

 

They're currently working on expanding the Don Tyson Parkway (red) west over I-540 (blue), as well as expanding the north/south road next to the stadium all into a full avenue.  They're also adding a four-ramp partial cloverleaf (B-2) interchange for Don Tyson/I-540.

 

 

So far, they've only done groundwork at this location.  They've not even begun to work on the pillars for the overpass or anything, just all dirtwork so far.

[Hellken 1,658]

I found this on Youtube. It's interesting:

 

The Phu My Bridge - Saigon, Vietnam (2007- 2009) - Construction Time Lapse

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agPC4IpoHNI

 

Japan's highways are so well designed. The quality of the expressways is unbelievable. 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWbRKw_qP58

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fM3edyA-yiM

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYFRQkVpf9A

[The Pennsylvania Turnpike 252]

I made a timelapse video about a week ago. Driving from my town to the local Target in Allentown.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MJljaTVqDw

[Hellken 1,658]

Another compilation of Japanese expressways

Credits to this person for compiling and the people who photographed:

Toll Gate by OiMax, on Flickr


Main road in Tokyo by johnmcga, on Flickr


japanese highway by ryoku52, on Flickr


Metropolitan Expressway (Shuto Expressway) 首都高速道路 by pictureTYO, on Flickr


Shinmidosuji, Osaka by m-louis, on Flickr


midnight highway bus, Sep. 19, 2009 by Yoidore, on Flickr


Another Slope to Yamate Tunnel by ykanazawa1999, on Flickr


Chūgoku Expressway near Chūgoku-Toyonaka IC in Toyonaka,Osaka,Japan 2009/5/2 by special-rapid223, on Flickr


Hanshin Expressway by timtram, on Flickr


Tokyo 1618 by tokyoform, on Flickr


cherry blossoms #5735 by Nemo's great uncle, on Flickr


Metropolitan expressway divergence by ninnin, on Flickr


bayshore route by Ben*, on Flickr

[TekindusT 3,809]

A highway through a skyscraper is a thing that could only happen in Japan! Very cool post!

[Odainsaker 2,137]

Andrei Tarkovsky's 1972 Soviet film version of Stanisław Lem's science fiction novel Solaris offered a fascinating view of the highways of the future which looked suspiciously familiar:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9t9BduJXB5Q

 

For communist moviegoers in the USSR under Brezhnev, the Brave New World of humanity's future was gritty, 1971 Tokyo and would be full of Datsuns!  The only thing missing were the googly-eyed, '70s kaiju stomping in from Monster Island.

 

Interestingly, wiki tells us that Tarkovsky's original plan was to film the metropolis of the future at Osaka's Expo '70, which was postwar Japan's megastructured, robotized, and monorail-connected vision of the future of popular technology for the 1970 world's fair.  Sadly, those filming plans apparently fell apart over personal disagreements, but, we can get a taste of what it might have looked like from these home footage clip of Osaka Expo '70 taken largely aboard the monorail and the cable skycar:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OeuNIdhqMg

 

Ironically, you can see the red USSR pavilion towering with futuristic Socialist Realism at the 7:30 min. mark in the video.

 

Kinda sad that these fair structures no longer exist and the area is now mostly parkland, however, the Tower of the Sun sculpture is still there making scrunched faces at everybody.  They are nostalgically surreal in their manufactured feel of a mass consumer society re-emerging as a top world economic power under the exposition's slogan of "Progress and Harmony for Mankind."  By the end of the decade, the belief was that the faceless mega-corporations of Japan Inc. were buying up America.  Ah well, here is another for good measure:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8m-1wsSU1k

[Haljackey 17,398]

I made a few new timelapse driving videos on a recent trip to Toronto.

 

 

Hwy 401 and 427 into Toronto:

 

 

Gardiner Expressway into downtown:

 

 

Night drive on 401:

[Hellken 1,658]

 

 

Tel Aviv, Israel; Source

[Harry's Place 918]

A part of A4- the ring highway of Constanta. From the bottom right corner to the left: the junction between A4 and national road 3, A4 overpasess the main railway and then A4 has a junction with A2

 

[Haljackey 17,398]

I've got a new video to share: a blazingly fast video of Highway 402

 

 

 

Another superspeed one if you liked that:

 

[Pioneer 140]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x088fNcpy18

[SAVAGExPHOENIX 955]

So, my buddy made this cool little find. Interstate 35 East in North Texas (from Dallas to Denton) is undergoing a pretty large expansion project. You guys might find this pretty interesting, and also a great way to show off expansion projects in your City Journals using this kind of template.

Anywho, Enjoy!

I-35E Expansion Project PDF (click to view with web viewer or right click and download to view offline)

[Duke87 1,070]

Looks like part of the project will be converting existing HOV lanes to HOT lanes. This is a sound idea if you find that HOV lanes are underutilized. Then those lanes are being extended north.

 

I also like the idea of having two reversible lanes rather than one lane permanently each way. This allows you to better manage the directionality of rush hour.

[SAVAGExPHOENIX 955]

Yeah, well I-35E is the second busiest corridor in North Texas (right behind I-635 from US-75 to I-35, which is also under a massive expansion project). I think that this is a brilliant idea, and I certainly will be enjoying the increased traffic flow, especially the extra general-use lane from Swisher Rd in Corinth to US-380 in Denton. Where it goes from 3 to 2 near Swisher Rd right now gets congested for miles and miles, adding about 10 minutes during the day, and an extra 30 during rush hour. I'm glad to see hit happening.

[jmsepe 2,039]

My God, foreign expressways are so awesome. Here in the Philippines, you don't see expressways only a clunk of  worn out concrete tabs called roads which are nearly 30 years old! 

[clhigh7 583]

I was going to embed a couple of youtube videos but I've never done that on here before. Does anyone know how to?

[timmie 988]

I was going to embed a couple of youtube videos but I've never done that on here before. Does anyone know how to?

 

Just click 'share' on Youtube and copy the link. If you paste it here, the forum software will automatically embed the video

[clhigh7 583]

Ah, thank you. I was making things much more complicated than needed!

 

Here's a few videos of The Katy Freeway, The Eastex Freeway, and The Southwest Freeway. It looks different from some of the other posts I've seen so I thought I'd share. There's a nice use of HOV lanes and transit centers (our public transportation is still awful)

 

 

 

 

 

http://youtu.be/Hj1zHJt4Rj8

[timmie 988]

Ah, thank you. I was making things much more complicated than needed!

 

 

You videos aren't working. Have you possibly entered the Youtube-url with the hyperlink-button? You don't need to, just past it in your message, like this. Nothing more

 

[clhigh7 583]

Thanks, I did it as a link. Wow I feel like a dork! 

[Hellken 1,658]

Look at this 24 KM bridge in Penang, Malaysia
 

 


Source

[jmsepe 2,039]

If only I could make these stuffs in SC4 that would be great......

 

 

 

 

 

They are all in Japan btw. 

 

[Haljackey 17,398]

Japan's highways are pretty amazing considering how they meander in dense urban centres.

 

I've always wanted to build this: The 401 in Toronto. I've used it as a source of inspiration for countless highway in SC4.

 

(Video made by me!)

 

[Hellken 1,658]

[clhigh7 583]

 

^Tallest interchange in the U.S. , The High Five in Dallas TX

-worth a watch!

 

 

^North Loop 410 in San Antonio TX

-has a couple impressive interchanges

[Ganaram Inukshuk 906]

Can I just say something? The other day, I was caught in a discussion with someone else about incomplete interchanges... On a non-SC4 site. It was on a pony-related site.

I initially thought it'd be an incomplete highway that's been cut by residential development, but no, it was far more complicated than that.

 

It was more like this. https://www.google.com/maps/@30.3393942,-97.6996641,636m/data=!3m1!1e3

 

While I was talking about how I would try to reconstruct that in SC4 and realising that not all of the tools for that are publicly available, he made mention of how he'd downconvert parts of the interchange into a cloverleaf. Though I'm not seeing how that could be done.

 

 

 

With this interchange, I would simply create a loop to go from North 35 to North 183 since there are no obstructions in the way (except some businesses, but I'm sure TxDot could buy the land and hopefully not toll the dam project), remove that giant ramp, and this would enable 2 more loops and 2 more short ramps to be created. The remaining short ramp would be removed, and in the meantime, anyone wishing to travel South 35 from South 183 could take the other 3 loops once those are completed, while they build the 4th where the short ramp would currently be. It's not quite easy to explain with all the proper terminology left out of my explanations

 

Well, it was kinda hard for both of us to understand since we were speaking different languages here: English and NAMlish.

[Odainsaker 2,137]

San Antonio's Connelly Loop at the interchange of Loop 410 and I-10:
 


Inside the great pork chop on the right-hand side is TxDOT's TransGuide Building, the operations center for our TransGuide smart road system.  TxDOT certainly made sure for themselves that they could easily drive to their own workplace!  On the big screens inside the control auditorium, Russian ICBMs are tracked to their NATO targets...oops, I mean the highway system is diligently monitored for traffic bottlenecks and rerouted around coordinated emergency response.


"Put an X in the center square!"

Amusingly, TxDOT's photos of this building always trim and edit off the surrounding highway decks.  During it's construction, I thought this place was the plinth for some post-modern skyscraper, but, alas, it is just institutional fortress architecture.  Being in the middle of the flyovers, this building is quite conspicuous from the lower approaches on 410.  A glass tower on top in the middle of the pork chop could have been interesting.
 

It even has The Great Chozo's Highway Light Towers!

 

Still, our road planners are earnestly trying to bring us a more urbanely sensitive road system...look, we are even planning for some of those fancy European roundabout thingamajigs:
 

(By sirkingwilliam on Skyscraperpage.com)

Intersection of San Pedro Avenue, Main Avenue, Camden Street, Navarro Street, Soledad Street, North Main Avenue, and Buffalo Run.  Groovy!

 

I wonder if that would really work in SimCity using NAM and FAR pieces.

[JessiLaurn 184]

I'm a bit of a bridgefan as well.....
 

US-62 Bridge at Allegheny River, Hunters Station, PA
This is an unusual Pratt truss bridge in that the road deck is halfway up the trusses, rather running along the bottom. This was an adaptation to frequent flooding along this stretch of river, an effort to keep the road deck above the flood level. The bridge is slated for replacement by Penn DOT (which is notorious about knocking down historic bridges to throw up a concrete replacement).

 

 

Full album is here:

https://www.facebook.com/jessilaurn/media_set?set=a.10203197415150419.1073741836.1059360931&type=3

And while we're at it, there's this lovely old girl:

 

Camelback Bridge, County 46 at Genessee River, Caneadea, NY

This camelback truss (variant of the Parker truss) bridge was built in 1903. The original wooden roadbed was replaced with steel grate in the 1950s, and the entire thing was closed to traffic in 1993. Via a strong grassroots effort, the structure was rehabilitated and reopened in 2007. What the placard does not note is that the bridge was closed again in 2011; local farmers refused to respect the restricted weight limit, which stressed the structure to the point of state inspection failure. There are no plans to reopen the bridge at this time.

 

 

 

Full album here:

https://www.facebook.com/jessilaurn/media_set?set=a.10203166700542573.1073741832.1059360931&type=3

[Sabretooth78 808]

On the topic of bridges, there is an interesting one in NH which carries US 3 and a local road over the Suncook River which is also the border between the towns of Allenstown and Pembroke.  I worked for NHDOT between 2001-2005 right around the time the 2007 replacement span was in design.  The original bridge was red listed, functionally obsolete, whatever you want to call it (I drove over it many times, it had indeed become a piece of junk).  The new design basically replicated the old due to public outcry after the original plan was something a little more generic (and I believe had removed the lower roadway).

 

 

http://bridgehunter.com/nh/merrimack/400690005600/

[__A 792]

 

Melbourne's Roundabout of Death. Tram tracks crossing through a roundabout with traffic lights!